Rotary engine.



R. LUIKART. ROTARY ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED MN. 19, |9l7 RENEWED JAN. 29. 1919. 1,299,588.

96. ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

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R. E. LUIKART.

ROTARY ENGINE. APPLICATION nus!) JAN. 19; 1911. RENEWED MN. 29, 1919. 1,99,58,

Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

INVENTOR fiw [Zw/r WITNESSES A TIOIMIEYS T ES PATENT orrron.

BOY-ELMER'LUIKABT, or-sroux-rnnns, scum DAKOTA.- no'rnnynnemn Application filed Ianuary 19, 1917, Serial No. 143,816, Renewed January 29, 1919. I Serial No. 273,890.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROY E. LUIKART, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of-Sioux Falls, in the county of Minnehaha and State of South Dakota, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Rotary Engines, fication.

My invention is an improvement in rotary engines and has for its'object to provide n an engine of the character speclfied a pa1r of piston supports, each carrying a pair of oppositely arranged pistons mounted to move through a common annular passage having intake and exhaust ports and igniting means, and wherein the piston supports are so connected that the pistons of the supports will serve alternately as propelling pistons and as abutments.-

In the drawings:

Figure l is a transverse vertical section through the improved engine,

Fig. 2'is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow adj acent the line, I

Fig. 3 is a section through one of the pistons,

Fig. 4; is a partial side view of one of the piston supports with the piston in section,

, Fig. 5 is a partial front view of the casing with parts in section showing the exhaust, and

Fig. 6 is a similar view showing the spark p In the present embodiment of invention a sectional casing is provided, consisting of sections 1 and 2 connected by means of bolts and nuts 3 which pass through radial flanges 4 in the sections and through other flanges to be later described, and each section has a bearing 5, the bearings alining when the sections are connected. A shaft 6 is journaled in the bearings 5 and the shaft has a usual fly-wheel 7. The shaft has secured thereto a pair of piston wheels or pistonv supports 8 and 9, the former being keyed to the shaft 6 and the latter loosely journaled thereon. Each of these piston wheels or supports carries a pair of pistons 101O and 11- 11 respectively, and these pistons move in an annular casing formed by similar sections 12. I I

- Each of these has outwardly extending flanges 13 which are received between the flanges 4, and each section is jacketed by a jacket section 14%, also having flanges 15 Specification of Letters Patent.

of which the following is a speci- I exhaust of the Patented Apr. 8, 1919.

which are received between the flanges 13 and the flanges 4, all of the flanges being secured together by the bolts and nuts 3, before mentioned.

A packing ring 16 is arranged between the flanges of the sections 12, and these sectionshave inwardly extending. flanges 17' which fit against the outer faces of the piston wheels 8 and 9, and packing rings indicated at 18 are arranged between the flanges 17 and the adjacent faces of the wheels, and between the abutting faces of the wheels. The jacket sections ing flan es 19 which are secured to the flanges 1 as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

' The casing 12-12 has an intake 20 and an exhaust 21, and an igniting device 22, in the present instance a spark plug, is arranged at a point diametrically opposite the exhaust The intake is at a point approximately thirty degrees in advance of the exhaust. A gear wheel 23 is secured to the section 1 of the outer casing, and a pinion 24: is mounted to rotate about the gear wheel, the said pinion being carried on a crank shaft 25 which is journaled in one end of an arm 26 keyed on the shaft 6, and having at 14 have inwardly extendthe other end a counterweight 27. An arm 28 is keyed to the hub and the outer end of of the piston wheel 9, this arm is connected by a link 29 with the crank of the crank shaft 25.

In operation with tion of Fig. 2, a compressed charge is between the pistons 10 and 11. When this charge is ignited the piston 11 will be driven forwardly as indicated by the arrow, assuming eventually the position of the piston 10. The piston 10 has meanwhile moved to the position occupied by the piston 11 and the former explosion between the pistons 11 and 10 is driven out through the exhaust.

The piston 11 as it moves forward past the intake, draws in a charge, and advancing to the position occupied by the piston 10, compresses the charge already drawn into the casing by the movement of piston 10. At each explosion the piston occupying the position of the piston 10 acts as an abutment, and the piston occupying the position of the piston 11 is the propelling piston. This relative movement of thepiston supports is brought about through the connection between the pinion 24 and the piston support 9. As the piston support 9 rotates, the arm the parts in the posi- 26, the crank shaft 25 and the piston 24 are carried around the gear wheel 23, and-since the pinion 24: is rotated as it is carried around the gear wheel, the crank shaft will be rotated and the arm 28 will be moved irregularly.

'It will be-observed that the piston wheel 8 must travel forward at all times with a smooth motion and at a steady pace, the gas expanding with practically an even motion, and no matterv which piston is ahead at the time of the explosion, the front piston has a leverage on the rear or abutment piston through the gear connection. Referring to Fig. 2, if there is a charge of compressed gas between pistons 10 and 11,- the element v 29 stands in such a position that the element 9 will be losing motion through the gear action. The piston 10 will practically stand still when the explosion takes place, and the piston 11 will go forward, piston 10 moving one-sixth as fast as piston 11, and the force of the explosion is exhausted through the spread of the pistons through the gears,

piston 10 advancing just past the spark plug,

while piston 11 advances to the position that piston 10 originally had, and piston 11 advances to the position that piston 11 originally held. Now, the second explosion will come between pistons 10 and 11 and piston 11 will continue to advance with the steady motion, while piston 10 will travel ahead at a much faster rate regaining the time that it lost through the gears.

The element 9 loses motion while piston therefore the motion must always be ahead in onedirection.

I claim:

A rotary engine comprising a casing having an annular cylinder, a shaft at the axis of the cylinder, wheels on the shaft, each wheel having diametrically opposite pistons, and the pistons moving in the cylinder, one

of the Wheels being keyed to the shaft, and a gearing connection between the other wheel and the casing for imparting an irregular motion. to the said Wheel, said connection comprising a rotary arm on the wheel, a gear wheel on the casing and co-axial with the V shaft, an arm keyed to the shaft and carrying at one end a counter-balance, a crank shaft journaled in the other end of the arm, a pinion on the crank shaft and meshing with the gear wheel of the casing, and a link connecting the first named arm with the arm of the crank shaft.

nor ELMER LUrKAn'r. 

